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Frank Morley Fletcher
1866–1949
BirthplaceWhiston, Lancashire, England
Death placeOjai, California, United States of America
BiographyPainter, printmaker, and author Frank Morley Fletcher was an influential educator credited with helping to introduce Japanese techniques of color woodblock printmaking to American artists. Born in Whiston, England, Fletcher attended University College in the nearby port city of Liverpool and began his art studies at the St. John's Wood Art School in London. By 1888 he had moved to Paris as a student at the Atelier Cormon run by history and portrait painter Fernand Cormon (1845–1924). While there, Fletcher made the acquaintance of American painters Albert Herter (1871–1950) and Fernand Lungren and also encountered Japanese woodblock prints, which were at the height of their popularity in the West.
In 1891, Fletcher exhibited his paintings at the Paris Salon and at the Art Institute of Chicago's annual watercolor show, and two years later he won a medal for a work exhibited at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. He headed the art department of Reading University in the south of England and in 1895 became involved in collaborative woodcut printmaking using multiple blocks in the Japanese manner; he made his first solo woodcut in 1900. Deeply interested in current debate about popular art education and the integration of art and industry, Fletcher took up a post in London as inspector of art schools for southern England until he was appointed in 1907 as director of the important Edinburgh College of Art. In 1915 he published an influential manual, Woodblock Printing by the Japanese Method, and began introducing the techniques to British and visiting American artists.
In 1923, Herter and Lungren persuaded the then-fifty-seven-year-old Fletcher to come to California to teach graphic design and printmaking, and before long he assumed the directorship of the School of the Arts in Santa Barbara, founded by Lungren in 1920; in 1926 he became a naturalized U.S. citizen. Fletcher influenced a number of students who became prominent printmakers in California and beyond. He probably introduced color woodcut artist Frances Hammell Gearhart to Japanese printmaking methods. Yet Fletcher is said to have made only three color woodcuts of his own during his years in the United States. In 1930, the school was forced to close, a victim of poor economic times. Fletcher retired from the art scene five years later and moved to Ojai, California, some forty miles east of Santa Barbara, where he died impoverished at the age of eighty-three. However, Fletcher is regarded today as a pivotal figure in the history of modern woodcut printmaking in both England and the United States.
In 1891, Fletcher exhibited his paintings at the Paris Salon and at the Art Institute of Chicago's annual watercolor show, and two years later he won a medal for a work exhibited at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. He headed the art department of Reading University in the south of England and in 1895 became involved in collaborative woodcut printmaking using multiple blocks in the Japanese manner; he made his first solo woodcut in 1900. Deeply interested in current debate about popular art education and the integration of art and industry, Fletcher took up a post in London as inspector of art schools for southern England until he was appointed in 1907 as director of the important Edinburgh College of Art. In 1915 he published an influential manual, Woodblock Printing by the Japanese Method, and began introducing the techniques to British and visiting American artists.
In 1923, Herter and Lungren persuaded the then-fifty-seven-year-old Fletcher to come to California to teach graphic design and printmaking, and before long he assumed the directorship of the School of the Arts in Santa Barbara, founded by Lungren in 1920; in 1926 he became a naturalized U.S. citizen. Fletcher influenced a number of students who became prominent printmakers in California and beyond. He probably introduced color woodcut artist Frances Hammell Gearhart to Japanese printmaking methods. Yet Fletcher is said to have made only three color woodcuts of his own during his years in the United States. In 1930, the school was forced to close, a victim of poor economic times. Fletcher retired from the art scene five years later and moved to Ojai, California, some forty miles east of Santa Barbara, where he died impoverished at the age of eighty-three. However, Fletcher is regarded today as a pivotal figure in the history of modern woodcut printmaking in both England and the United States.